Many stayed on, seduced by the romanticism of raw Siberia and drawn by the generous wages and other perks granted by Soviet law to those working in harsh conditions.

BBC: News - Today - Life in the oil-rich Siberian town of Strezhevoy

On 5 March, the USSR Supreme Soviet approved a draft law which would transfer control of the KGB from the USSR Cabinet of Ministers to the USSR President and Supreme Soviet as well as provide legal immunity for KGB officers from Soviet citizens.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

European governments, companies and banks simply did not share the U.S. view that Moscow should be penalized for its sponsorship of repressive martial law in Poland (and near Soviet invasion) in the early 1980's, but instead should be de facto rewarded with the largest single Western taxpayer-subsidized transaction in the history of East-West trade.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: CUBA AND THE JURAGUA NUCLEAR POWER COMPLEX

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Castro enacted a law allowing small family-run restaurants (paladares) to exist in private homes.

BBC: Exploring Cuba��s simple, yet tasty, fare

In 1981, U.S. President Reagan announced a program of economic sanctions against the Soviet Union because of its alleged role in the imposition of martial law in Poland.

CNN: Monday,

Born in 1967 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to a doctor father and a historian mother, he did his Soviet military service in Ukraine, where he went on to study international law.

BBC: Profile: President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia

One-third or more of the 800, 000-odd immigrants from the ex-Soviet Union are not considered fully Jewish under the Orthodox interpretation of Jewish law which is the law of the land in matters of personal status.

ECONOMIST: Israel��s great divide